bios recovery

hi:

my kid did a bios flash on his comp. and I am trying to fix it for him as I don't want him on my comp. this is the problem I went to biostar the maker of his board (U8668-D v7.6) downloaded the U8668R33 bios update, the AWD826g flash program and drdflash put all on a floppy and restarted his comp. everything was fine till I got a warning in the award flash utility saying:

System was not new AWARD BIOS version!
please update ROM BIOS first.......

Message: Please input File Name!

Please can some one help me.

TY Daniel

Hi dan & welcome to windrivers.

I think this might be a case of RTFM ! :eek2: :devil: .. or more correctly ( & quite a bit more politely ;)) look at the website for some instructions :) - Biostar BIOS update instructions

Apparently unlike most boards, there's no need for any seperate flashing program, there's a bios routine to update it. Good luck ..

Hi:

Ok confus-ed I have done what you told me and have gotten further but am at a stand still again. Bios has been flashed seems my kids bios is a (WINBOND 49F002U /5V) and I get a warning saying:

Don't turn off power or reset system!

and it has been there for 4 hours like that. help please anyone :( :( .

Ok, so let me do a bit of a rewind, as I ought to have asked really & not just given you a link. When you said this "..my kid did a bios flash on his comp. and I am trying to fix it for him .." - well what were we trying to fix ?

& I think if you've left the bios flash for a fair bit & its still 'stuck', all you can now do is try turning it off & cross your fingers - there are ways to undo this, its not necessarily completely terminal if it won't restart, but it gets complicated.

Confus-ed was helping me and I figured out what I was doing wrong in fixing my kids comp I origanily flashed wrong bios but found the right one I hope!!!! as I have gotten in to CMOS Settings I get a warning saying:

CPU has changedor CPU ratio changed fail.
Please re-enter CPU settings in the CMOS setting and remember to save before qite.

so I asked my kid what this could be and he said I'm sorry dad but I bought a new CPU and this is why all of these problems are happening he gave me the box and manual but I know nothing of this stuff and need help can anyone help me get this kids comp. going again I am at wits end ready to tell him he can go with-out as I refuse to let him use my comp. In settings I say yes to set default but it wont let me save and exit it freezes at that point.

Alright, now things are becoming more clear. What we need to know, in order to set the bios correctly, is to know what new CPU is now in the machine. On the cpu box it will say the make, model number and speed of the new cpu. Tell us that info so we can help you get the bios set properly. At least you are now in the bios...so that's a positive step.

Dan originally posted something to the effect of 'screw this, I'll buy my kid a new pc after I've killed him a bit' :devil: but I'm glad to see he figured out the 'mistook' in matters :thumbs:

Trip's right, we seem to have daylight, if you can hit bios, so there's very probably a way of getting things going - as he says please give details of the 'new' cpu & I think somebody here will be able to help you get it all going - but it depends if you 'errant child' has managed to buy something suitable...

I think its worth saying that 'a decent tech' ought to be able to sort this in about an hour or so, so I'd take a view on how much hair pulling, learning about things you never wanted to be bothered with & time you want to invest, in any fixing ;)

I like Trip am 'happy to help' (& I'm reasonaby confident we can do this 'by remote control') but you may prefer to just get somebody who already understands all the why's & wherefroes to do this :)

OK I have commed down from wanting to kill my kid. had a good sleep and relaxed from all this stress. the CPU he bought is as follows.

Intel Celeron D Processor
Processor 335+
2.80 GHz
533 MHz FSB
256 KB L2 Cache

Sorry for all the confusion but when it comes to the computers in this house if I can just reboot the comp from a disk that is fine but all this other stuff is new to me and I was just stressed with my kid. I am glad there are people in this world to help Idiots like me. but I guess I am learning things and my Kid has learned to not do things he knows nothing about next time he will talk to me and ask me to ask for help. Just to let you know I am very greatful to you all.

Thanks Daniel

Alright. Go into Bios setup and you'll see on the opening menu "Frequency Control". Go there, using your keyboard and change "CPU Clock Ratio" to "x21" and "CPU Clock" to "133".
Then let's see if it boots up. Since you've chosen before to use "Defaults", other changes may be necessary. But let's take this one step at a time. Since your son is so inexperienced, I would hope that the cpu heatsink/fan was installed properly, too.
You do have a copy of the m/b manual, right? If not, download it here:
http://www.biostar.com.tw/support/ma...hp3?socket=478

In "Frequency Control" there is no "CPU Clock Ratio" and the "CPU Clock" is set to "133". Also No I could not find the Manual so I down loaded it. My son said the man at the store said that there is a gray patch on the fan and it was not to be cleaned off as it was needed for what you are talking about and I looked at the fan it looks well alined and the 2 gray handles are flipped to tighten the fan in place I assume as nothing moves it is all snug as a bug in a rug HAHAHA!!!!.

Daniel

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dandaman1962

In "Frequency Control" there is no "CPU Clock Ratio" and the "CPU Clock" is set to "133"...

---

No surprises to me over here then .. almost all intel board/chip combo's are 'ratio locked' to stop you overclocking by upping the ratio. Any settings here are invariably 'auto' - methinks the issue is that the bios flash we need to get it to work as it should on 'auto' needed applying before we changed the cpu - but I'm entirely confused on whether we've gotten any latest bios to actually install or not ?

confus-ed:

when I went to the site biostar to look for the bios there where 3 diffrent ones U8668-d 28, U8668-d 30 and U8668-d 33. now 33 didn't get me into the bios and 28 did maybe this mother board needs 30 well I have to go to work but after work I will try U8668-d 30 and see what happens just let me know if I should or not what is the worriest that could happen.

Daniel

..now 33 didn't get me into the bios and 28 did..

Mmmm, I'm still most confus-ed about what's going on ..

Which if any of these bios flashes reckoned to complete ? & what's it saying for its bios version now ? - generally you get some indication on another pre-windoze screen like so :-
http://biorobots.cwru.edu/server/how.../post/post.jpg
(the example above indicates its current bios version in two ways - at the top where it says for this one "v1.3" etc & in the bottom left by that big long string starting with a date {30th september 99 in this case}).

BUT I'm thinking that none of these will complete in the first place without cpu support which we want to add (& all that's hapened in all of this confusion, is that when we've tried to update it, its failed & then its reverted itself back to 'failsafe' when we were trying to fix it)

According to the manual that I downloaded and read, there IS a Clock Ratio setting under the Frequency Menu. So, I am wondering if this is the actual m/b you have...and as -ed wonders, the right bios.
d/l the manual -ed and you will see what I am talking about.

In the meantime, I'd like to know what happens after you save changes in Bios and reboot. Do you still get the same message?
Oh well, guess we'll have to wait until tonight to find out. :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TripleRLtd

...d/l the manual -ed and you will see what I am talking about.

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I did d/l, & I know what exactly what you mean - but the only adjustment I could see in the mannual I downloaded was for fsb - no mention of muliplier settings that I saw .. but I've been busy today, so maybe I got confus-ed again - but Dan who's the important one in all of this can't apparently see it either ?

I think for clarity's sake I'd better trouble you for an exact reference if you can see it :).

Even going back the what Dan originally posted as the error confirms my suspicion:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dan

CPU has changedor CPU ratio changed fail.
Please re-enter CPU settings in the CMOS setting and remember to save before qite.

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Plus, on this page I get different numbers:
http://www.biostar.com.tw/support/bi...U8668-D%20v7.x

This: u8668dr33.exe should be the latest bios!! UNLESS this: U8668-D v7.6 is not the board we are talking about. Listen, I think we need to be SURE about this now, as dan has already talked about trying with a wrong bios. This could potentially get even worse. To tell the truth, your earlier recommendation of hiring a real tech to do this seems to be the way to go now. Geesh, for something like this I know I wouldn't charge much, plus the tech could make sure about the actuall install AND the m/b. So, unless Dan wants to continue, that's my recommendation. BUT: we NEED to be sure what m/b he has. There are about half a dozen model numbers that closely resemble the one posted. Plus: BIOSTAR is not, imho, very support oriented. Personally I never buy those boards.

HI:

Good news to you both Confus-ed and TripleRLtd. when fixing these boards you have to install all three bios updates in order and then all is fixed I installed u8668r28 got comp. working then I installed u8668r30 still had problem saving defaults so thought well try u8668r33 and then my cpu problem disapeared there are no more problems comp follows through to the windows and all is good thanks guys you got me thinking and helped out. my kid is greatful he has his comp back working and promises me to leave it alone.

:cool:
Glad we could help, and glad it worked out for the best. :thumbs:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dandaman1962

..when fixing these boards you have to install all three bios updates in order and then all is fixed ..

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Brilliant :thumbs2: .. but that's unusual ! & if you ask me 'bad practice' on the part of biostar :rolleyes: - almost always before I've found any updated bioses to be 'standalone' & generally you just apply the latest bios & that has all previous fixes rolled up into it - another thing to remember that might possibly be wrong because somebody isn't quite doing their job 'as expected'..